Before getting the car out, I needed to raise the exhaust. When I bought it, the back section was separated from the car, and one of the resonators was missing. The last owner didn't have the correct mounting brackets, so he had tried to hold the partial exhaust up in place with wire. Unfortunately he had attached the wire to the heat insulator, which the exhaust's weight had pulled down. So for this first run I managed to get the wire onto the actual brackets for supporting the exhaust and raise it far enough to give me decent clearance. At the same time I put in my order with SNG Barrett for the correct exhaust hanger and rubber supports.
I managed to persuade Steve to forego his lunch break to spend time to see an historic event (!!), and my eldest son, Jamie, came along for the entertainment.
The car started no problem, and I let the temperature rise before moving it. We put down two pairs of wooden planks to give me a ramp out of the garage to the driveway, and I put the car into drive. Very tentatively I let my foot off the brake and let the car creep forward ............ and it crept!!
The car came down the ramp fine, my confidence in the brakes increasing continuously as they held the car with no feelings of sponginess whatsoever. If the car had eyes, it would be blinking thousands of times per minute to get used to actual daylight after being inside in limited light for so long.
At the bottom of the ramp I turned the car to the left and actually drove my E-type Jag around my other car. At this point I noticed that the temperature gauge was up at hot .......... then I noticed the steam coming from under the engine. I pulled over and turned off the engine, fearing the worst - did I have a crack in the block? See below for a brief video of this event, ending with torrential rain coming from the bottom of the engine.
To get the car back into the garage, I filled the system with water (after a long walk to the office toilet and back for enough water) and what little anti-freeze I had, and just drove it straight in. Steve had had to leave as his lunchtime was over, but Jamie did a good job of guiding me back up the ramps and into the garage.
Keep checking back. I've had the car out a couple of times again since this first one. I'll update on those "adventures" soon.